Daily ETF Watch: Oil Refiners Fund Planned

Van Eck’s Market Vectors ETF arm is looking to add another fund focused on the energy space with its latest filing. The Market Vectors Oil Refiners ETF tracks an index that requires companies to generate at least 50 percent of their revenues from oil refining operations or have at least half their assets devoted to the refining of crude oil.

Market Vectors already has two funds that focus on unique slices of the energy sector. The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (OIH | A-50) tracks the 25 largest U.S.-listed oil services companies, while the Market Vectors Unconventional Oil & Gas ETF (FRAK | B-31) targets companies involved mainly with nontraditional, nonsustainable energy sources like oil sands, coalbed methane and shale gas, among others.

The fund outlined in the latest filing, which will trade under the symbol “CRAK,” would be the first to focus on refiners. The ticker is short for “crack spreads”—the refining-industry term that measures profitability in terms of the difference in price between a barrel of oil and a barrel of refined product like gasoline, diesel or jet fuel.

The oil refiners ETF will draw its components from emerging as well as developed markets. As of the end of April, the underlying index had 26 components, many of them midcaps, with the smallest weighing in at $988 million and the largest coming in at $43.9 billion.

The filing didn’t include a proposed expense ratio.